The home PCs we tested fall into two categories: value-priced entry-level systems (the Apple iMac, Compaq Presario 5000, Dell Dimension L800r, eMachines eTower 633irx, Gateway Essential 667c, HP Pavilion XE763C, and IBM NetVista A20i) and the more full-featured midrange models (the Compaq Presario 7000, Dell Dimension 4100, and Micron Millennia MAX GS). The entry-level systems are suitable for Web browsing, e-mail, and general-purpose applications (word processing, home finance, and the like), while the higher-priced systems can also be used for creating music CDs, consumer-level digital-image editing, and gaming.

Both the Compaq Presario 7000 and Dell Dimension 4100 had the fastest processors: a Pentium III/866 and AMD Athlon/900, respectively. These were also two of the three models we tested (along with the Micron unit) that had add-in graphics acceleratorsas opposed to motherboard-resident chip setswith 32MB of graphics RAM. Not surprisingly, this feature factored heavily in our benchmark test results. The Business Winstone and Content Creation Winstone scores of those Compaq and Dell machines approach the scores achieved by the high-end PCs we tested for our December 5 roundup ("Perfect PCs").

The entry-level machines use on-board graphics based on Intel 810 and 810E chip sets, except for the iMac, which uses an ATI chip set. All of the entry-level desktops (except the iMac) use system memory as graphics memory, which results in lower test scores than the PCs with dedicated graphics accelerators earned. These chip sets do not use a separate frame buffer, and that forces the graphics chip to share bandwidth with the CPU and DMA transfers.

The use of Intel 810 and 810E chip sets in the entry-level machines allows only very basic 3-D gaming and DVD playback. The use of on-board video is a cost-saving measure, and it provides adequate performance at this price. The Compaq Presario 5000, Dell Dimension L800r, and Gateway Essential 667c all use the Intel 810E chip set. But of these three, only the Dell PC has extra display cache, which boosted its 3D WinMark score (not charted). The display cache helps the performance of the 810 and 810E's on-board graphics, mainly for 3-D z-buffering. Display cache does not necessarily improve a PC's performance on Content Creation Winstone or Business Winstone, because these tests do not challenge the PC's 3-D capabilities.

Since our benchmark tests are Windows-based, the iMac was unable to run Business Winstone and Content Creation Winstone or complete the i-Bench tests over a modem. The Micron Millennia MAX GS couldn't run Business Winstone and Content Creation Winstone, even after we updated the graphics drivers as Micron suggesed. Analysis written by Joel Santo Domingo

How We Tested

Each company was free to submit its best configuration at two price levels: $900 or less for entry-level models and $1,800 or less for the midrange. We specified RAM (64MB and 128MB, respectively) and monitor size (15-inch and 17-inch) but left the processor speed, graphics solution, and hard drive subsystem up to the computer maker's discretion.

We tested under Windows Me and stripped each system's start-up configuration of all processes and tasks except for Systray, Windows Explorer, graphics card control panels, and ActiveX controls. We used the Windows Me disk defragmenter utility before each test run. We ran our i-Bench tests on Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 (IE 5.0 Macintosh for the iMac) at a resolution of 1,024-by-768 with true color. We cleared the history and deleted the temporary Internet files before each run so disk caching would not take place. We ran i-Bench through each desktop's 56K modem, as this is the method most people will use to access the Web at home.

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